Anyways, these kinds of breakouts/breakdowns, where the stock is trading out of the previous day's high/low, are my personal favorites.

Main thing I like to look at is the sector percent change from the open, and volume breakouts/breakdowns. Keeping it simple.

Ken

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You called it short at 45.3- Are we supposed to be impressed? The thing lit up our volume spike filters here about a full buck higher than were you got in.

My kid sister could have called that thing short by the 45.30 area man.

Did you tell the room when you saw it that NET hadn't moved much yet and that it might be the sympathy play. I'd be more impressed if you knew their largest competitor right off the bat than your short entry.

Having said that...you did have a nice cover we covered way earlier than that.

An autotrading routine could have gotten in on increased volatility and down volume and out on the rebound.

The news on this thing was all good from PRNewswire and Businesswire, not very good but nothing bad. I found this at Briefing.com however. If this is relevant then it was a good call for sure. The other issues mentioned did not make any dramatic moves but it would have been nice to have SYMC on the watchlist.

Max

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If Support Breaks, Watch Out Below
Internet Wire - Tuesday, February 25, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 25-02-2003 -- Stock Traders Daily has determined that the Market is very near an important level of support and high degrees of risk therefore accompany trading decisions at this time.
As a result, Thomas H. Kee Jr., Chief Investment Strategist with Stock Traders Daily, has issued specific Trading Parameters for both the Market and for individual stocks so Traders can determine when to buy or sell their stock Market investments at the right time.

In addition to the Market, the following stocks are near important inflection points:

1. SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC)

2. Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE: SGP)

3. Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC)

4. S&P DEPOS RECPTS (AMEX: SPY)

Specific Trading Strategies for the above-mentioned stocks and the Market itself can be found by visiting the corporate Website:

14:02 ET SYMC Unveiled (SYMC) 40.67 -6.69: -- Update --
Sources at the Symantec analyst day believe the nature of the stock's precipitous decline is due to a "pull the trigger, ask questions later" reaction upon receiving the analyst day presentation materials. The packet contains the financial information on the Company, but it will not be addressed until CFO gives his presentation. However, upon reviewing these figures, the bottom line numbers were inconsistent with current consensus estimates and immediately triggered alarm by buy side investors fearing guidance was back-end loaded. Institutions reacted, with investors following, with no real understanding as to why these numbers differ from consensus and what the nature of the CFO's presentation will be today at the meeting. Briefing.com will be following the meeting for any new developments.

Ken why did you wait to short at 45? Yesterday's low was almost 47. It should've become a trigger in the high 46 area. Just curious.

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Good question, and agree, strictly following my 2d hi/low approach would've had the short call in the 46.7 to 46.4- range or thereabouts (eg .3 to .6 under the prev day low).

Main reason was, I didn't post a trigger on it til later in the session because the previous day's SYMC chart was choppy and not of interest. MERQ was the sofware stock that moved the most in the prev session, so it was on my radar for today's session. Anyways, SYMC didn't look interesting to me til it had already taken out the 2d low. (felt like "late to the short party".. like prev poster mentioned.. as we saw though, we were in fact early). One of my traders spotted the early volume move, and we took it from there as a team.

SYMC didn't come to my attention til it was already down at the 46.5 area (which looked a bit extended at the time).. so I said ok let's be conservative, make it get down far under the next whole number down, eg sub 46 .. so I posted the 45.3- short call..

Nice sharp drop on the short before the chop in the 40.5- 41 area.

Main thing I've found is important for daytrading, is to focus mainly on COMPQ days, and stock charts, that are outside of the previous day's range.

I also like to make sure the nas premkt futures are at least 7 or stronger green/red at the start of the day, and that the nas trin is <.7 or >1.5 ... Finally, I like to make sure to concentrate on stocks that are members of the currently strongest 2-3 sectors (as calculated via percent change from the open).

That, and waiting for breakouts slightly away from the previous day's high/low, is the main thing I've learned. This limits total trading time to 2-3 hours of action out of every 32.5 market hours each week in this market, but that's ok.

fwiw, I don't rely much on secondary oscillator indicators like stochs, MA and ADX for daytrades (MA/ADX are good for swingtrading, stochs ok for exits; otherwise MAs are too lagging and stochs are just background noise). Once the charts give me the 2-day high/low patterns on volume, the main thing I'm following is time and sales. Like a hawk.

The tape is critical, and reading the transaction flow in the tape, along w/charts and market internals, is the most important thing.

The tough part is having the patience to not trade intrarange days and charts, unless they show exceptional volume or have good 2+ point intraday ranges. Like others have posted, gaps and breakouts/breakdowns are the best to learn.

For me, my biggest challenge is getting comfortable w/trading size. I've done this 300-1K share at a time trading for so many years, I am not comfortable with 2K-5K+ share daytrades. But I need to be. Trading size is important, especially when you're limited to narrow timeframe for breakout moves and gaps. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Someone had mentioned thinking of it in terms of units not shares.. that's ok..any other ideas?

the more i learn, the more i realize, that planning ahead of each open, setting specific triggers ahead of the market open (then adjusting in/out based on sector moves and volume/tape moves)...keeping it simple, is the best approach.

You called it short at 45.3- Are we supposed to be impressed? The thing lit up our volume spike filters here about a full buck higher than were you got in.

My kid sister could have called that thing short by the 45.30 area man.

Did you tell the room when you saw it that NET hadn't moved much yet and that it might be the sympathy play. I'd be more impressed if you knew their largest competitor right off the bat than your short entry.

Having said that...you did have a nice cover we covered way earlier than that.

Thanks, good report on the facts. It is more useful than some so-called analysis or prediction. Please post followup.

Quote from zxcv1fu:

14:02 ET SYMC Unveiled (SYMC) 40.67 -6.69: -- Update --
Sources at the Symantec analyst day believe the nature of the stock's precipitous decline is due to a "pull the trigger, ask questions later" reaction upon receiving the analyst day presentation materials. The packet contains the financial information on the Company, but it will not be addressed until CFO gives his presentation. However, upon reviewing these figures, the bottom line numbers were inconsistent with current consensus estimates and immediately triggered alarm by buy side investors fearing guidance was back-end loaded. Institutions reacted, with investors following, with no real understanding as to why these numbers differ from consensus and what the nature of the CFO's presentation will be today at the meeting. Briefing.com will be following the meeting for any new developments.